Two Ears blocked with Wax. Then a likely pierced eardrum. Appreciate the healing process. Perhaps hidden from perception

A year ago (December 2021) both ears were blocked with wax. Seriously blocked. I estimated the ears had enough wax to block either end of the Suez Canal. The left ear permitted around 20% hearing and nothing from the right ear.

I tried the usual method avoided ear buds as much as covid, used olive oil and a couple of cheap gadgets strongly recommended on Amazon. Nothing dislodged the wax.

My primary job is listening. I could not hear traffic, the birds sing. If I sat as the passenger in the front seat of the car of Nshorna (my daughter) I had to swing my head around so I could hear her. (Right-hand drive-in UK). I turned up the volume on the loudspeakers for Zoom ad Skype and wore headphones. I listened to podcasts and music in the gym through one ear.

I bought a cheap £20.00 hearing aid recommended on Amazon. One person wrote that his wife lost her £3000.00 hearing aid at home. She said she used the cheap hearing aid until she found the expensive one. She said the cheap aid was nearly as good as the expensive one, recommended by her audiologist.

Next Step
I made the pilgrimage to the local NHS clinic to see the nurse to extract the wax. The reception told me I would have to wait for six weeks to see the nurse.

I decided to go private – as we say. It felt like a betrayal of the NHS. Reception in the eye and ear shop in the high street gave me an appointment for the following week. The young woman extracted first the wax in the left ear and then right ear. While extracting the wax in the right ear, I experienced an ‘ouch’

I might be wrong, but I think she might have ruptured the eardrum – a hole or tear in the thin tissue separating the ear canal from the middle ear (eardrum) or a small lump of waxed got lodged over the tiny hole.

I walked out of the clinic into the world of sound – Totnes seemed incredibly alive and buzzing after two months of virtual silence. No pain but hearing in the right ear had dropped by 50% or more.

I googled for information. Clinics agreed that hearing would return within a few weeks. Weeks went by. No change. Months went by. No change. I got used to it. I’m no spring chicken after all. I forgot about the ear issue.

Last month (November 2022), I was washing the dishes. I put some knives and forks from the sink onto the drainer besides the sink. The handful of knives, forks and spoons made a loud noise. I could not believe my ears. I picked up a plate and dropped it from three or four centimetres above kitchen top. A loud clatter. I picked up a teaspoon and dropped it from several centimetres above the kitchen top. Music. It was an unprecedented experience of enjoyable washing up.

Moral of this Account

The audiologist did not choose to reduce my hearing in the right ear. She had the opposite intention. I did not choose to say experience an ‘ouch,’ nor choose the date for the full  renewal of the hearing.

The natural happiness of the renewal came from appreciation of the healing power of nature rather than an outcome of thinking it was due to personal efforts.
Be mindful of belief in choice. Belief in choice might show our detachment, our alienation from reality.

Stay Awake